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National Indigenous Peoples Day, 2024

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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt

April 1, 2016

Archaeology of the Marten Creek valley

Last year (2015) archaeologists from Tree Time Services conducted surveys of a number of areas on the Marten Creek valley, from near the mouth of the creek at Lesser Slave Lake to the headwaters at Marten Lakes.  These surveys were done in advance of forestry operations by Alberta Plywood and Tolko Industries Slave Lake mill.

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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt

March 18, 2016

Early archaeology on Lesser Slave Lake

From 1979 to 1982, Dr. Ray LeBlanc, then Boreal Archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of Alberta, conducted baseline surveys of the Lesser Slave Lake region.  Before that time there were less than 1000 archaeological sites recorded in the entire Green Zone of northern Alberta (including the Grande Prairie region).  Within the Lesser Slave Lake basin there were only

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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt

March 2, 2016

More archaeological research in the Lesser Slave Lake region

From 1979 to 1990 Dr. Raymond Le Blanc conducted archaeological surveys and excavations in the Lesser Slave Lake region, first as a member of the Archaeological Survey of Alberta, and later with an archaeological field school with the University of Alberta. These projects are one of the largest archaeological bodies of work in Alberta’s boreal

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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt

February 19, 2016

How are Historic Resources like Environmental Contaminants?

I attended the Environmental Services Association of Alberta regulatory forum in Edmonton on January 11th, 2016 with Mike Toffan, our Reclamation Coordinator. None of the regulatory updates dealt directly with Historical Resources Act concerns, but our work often occurs in the broader environmental regulation context, so it’s good to have a general understanding of things

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By Elenore

January 28, 2016

What is a Borden Number?

The Borden System is used to provide each archaeological site in Canada with a unique identifier, called a Borden Number. These identifiers consist of two parts – four letters (formatted AaBb) and a number separated by a dash. The letters represent the Borden block which is the geographical location of the site and the number

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By Elenore

January 28, 2016

Why is Archaeology Important?

Archaeology provides us with the opportunity to learn about past cultures through the study of artifacts, animal bones and sometimes human bones. Studying these artifacts helps to provide us with some insight about what life was like for people who left behind no written record. In the case of historical archaeology the artifacts can help

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